Edward Snowden has not applied for political asylum in Russia

[JohnQPublic]

Edward Snowden has not applied for political asylum in Russia - Russian Immigration Service (http://rt.com/news/edward-service-immigration-russian-493/)
"...
The Russian Federal Migration service (FMS) has refuted media reports which claim that NSA leaker Edward Snowden applied for political asylum in Russia.
The New York Times, citing “a Russian immigration source close to the matter," reported on Monday that former CIA employee Snowden asked Moscow for political asylum.

The unnamed source told the paper that a WikiLeaks activist traveling with Snowden handed his application to a Russian consulate in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

Information in the foreign media which states that Snowden asked for asylum “is not true,” Zalina Kornilova, head of FMS press service, told RT.

However, Kim Shevchenko, a consul at Sheremetyevo airport, said that Snowden did apply for asylum in Russia.


According to the official, [WikiLeaks activist] Sara Harrison - who introduced herself as Snowden’s proxy - handed him the NSA leaker’s application on Sunday evening. The diplomat said he took the envelope, contacted the Foreign Ministry, and gave the document to the Ministry’s courier.


“I can’t say what exactly was in the envelope, because I received it and did not look inside,” Shevchenko told RT. He added that he knows the file was the asylum bid based on what Harrison told him. “And I believe this is not something one would be joking about,” he observed..."

[Libertytree]

By Andrew Osborn and Alexei Anishchuk
LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden broke his silence on Monday for the first time since fleeing to Moscow to say he remains free to make new disclosures about U.S. spying activity.
In a letter to Ecuador seen by Reuters, Snowden said the United States was illegally persecuting him for revealing its electronic surveillance programme, PRISM, but made it clear he did not intend to be muzzled.


"I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest," he said in an undated letter in Spanish sent to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.
"No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realise a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank."


Snowden's intervention came after he had applied for political asylum in Russia. President Vladimir Putin had earlier said he was not welcome unless he stopped harming U.S. interests.
Believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow'S Sheremetyevo airport, Snowden poured scorn on the U.S. government.
"While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the Government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel, and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression," he wrote.

ASYLUM APPLICATION

Wikileaks activist Sarah Harrison, who is travelling with Snowden, handed his asylum application to a consular official in the transit area at Sheremetyevo airport late on Sunday, Kim Shevchenko, a consul at the airport, told Reuters.


The Los Angeles Times, citing an unidentified Russian Foreign Ministry official, reported that Snowden had met Russian diplomats and given them a list of 15 countries where he wished to apply for asylum. Foreign Ministry and Kremlin officials declined immediate comment on the reports.
Putin, speaking eight days after Snowden landed in Moscow, repeated that Russia had no intention of handing him over to the United States, where he faces espionage charges.
"Russia has never given up anyone to anybody and does not plan to. And nobody ever gave anyone up to us," Putin said.
For the second time in a week, Putin said Russian intelligence agencies were not working with the 30-year-old American.
"If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my lips," he told reporters after a gas exporters' conference in Moscow.


But Putin said he suspected that Snowden would not stop leaking information, because "he feels himself to be a human rights activist".
"So he must choose a country of destination and go there," he said, speaking before the asylum request to Russia was reported. "Unfortunately, I don't know when this will happen."
Correa said on Sunday that Snowden's fate was in Russia's hands because Ecuador could not consider the plea until he reached Ecuador or one of its embassies.

U.S. PRESSURE

Snowden, who has not been seen by reporters scouring the airport, has had his U.S. passport revoked and countries around the world are under U.S. pressure to deny him asylum.
A U.S. national security official said that, as far as the U.S. government knew, Snowden was still in the transit zone and would have a "hard time leaving" the airport if he wanted to.
When asked about speculation that Snowden might leave with one of the delegations to the conference, whose guests included the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, Putin said did not know of such plans.


Shortly after Snowden fled the United States to Hong Kong last month and long before he arrived in Russia, Putin suggested the surveillance methods he revealed were justified in fighting terrorism, if carried out lawfully.


Although Russia has sometimes exchanged captured spies with the United States, Putin suggested on Monday that this was not on the cards for Snowden. "As for Mr Snowden, he is not our agent and he is not working with us," said Putin.


Obama, at a news conference in Tanzania dominated by the EU controversy, repeated that the United States was working through law enforcement channels to prod Russia to extradite Snowden.
Obama said there had been "high-level discussions with the Russians about trying to find a solution to the problem".

http://news.yahoo.com/edward-snowden-breaks-silence-threaten-u-disclosures-211255285.html

[Libertytree]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-0...atement-moscow (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-01/edward-snowden-issues-statement-moscow)

Via Wikileaks:

Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

Monday 1st July 2013

[Jewboo]

https://stopsyjonizmowi.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/a47.jpg

Mr. Putin has tried to stake out a neutral position since Mr. Snowden landed at Sheremetyevo airport eight days ago. If he grants Mr. Snowden asylum, Mr. Putin will inflict severe damage on Russia’s relationship with the United States. If he plays a part in his capture, he will appear to have bent to Washington’s will.

At a news conference on Monday, Mr. Putin tried to thread the needle, saying Mr. Snowden was welcome to stay in Russia as long as he stopped publishing classified documents that hurt the United States’ interests. He went on to acknowledge that this was unlikely to happen.

“If he wants to go somewhere and they accept him, please, be my guest,” Mr. Putin said. “If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must cease his work aimed at inflicting damage to our American partners, as strange as it may sound from my lips.”
He added, “Because he sees himself as a human-rights activist and a freedom fighter for people’s rights, apparently he is not intending to cease this work. So he must choose for himself a country to go to, and where to move. When that will happen, I unfortunately don’t know.”

Mr. Putin’s comments reflected an increasingly sober view of the outcome if Mr. Snowden remains in Russia. For the second time, he took pains to say that Mr. Snowden had not been recruited by Russian intelligence — an impression that could corrode Mr. Snowden’s image as a truth-teller and drive away some supporters.

Link (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/world/europe/snowden-applies-for-asylum-in-russia.html?_r=0)

[Cebu_4_2]

Dude, that article was straight from the Jew York Times... hardly credible. Sorry Book you fail on this one.

[Jewboo]

Dude, that article was straight from the Jew York Times... hardly credible. Sorry Book you fail on this one.

Here it is from the RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT'S own website:

http://rt.com/news/putin-snowden-asylum-extradite-489/






:rolleyes: you still insist Jackie shot JFK and here you are mentioning "credible".